Julie Forbush
Suffer
2022
Hand-dyed fabric and used sheets
29” x 16”
$750
2022
Hand-dyed fabric and used sheets
29” x 16”
$750
ARTIST INTERVIEW with ASL:
ABOUT THE ART:
“I use pennants to address the toxic positivity disabled people face. The pennants are a play on the toxic positivity often pushed on disabled folks by the medical community and able-bodied people. We’re placated with phrases like “differently abled”, told to celebrate our differences, or used as inspirational examples of resilience, when what we really need is treatment or at least empathy.
Pennants are usually associated with celebration and there’s a nice irony in using that visual language to highlight negative experiences. Negative things are just as formative as positive ones but they aren’t acknowledged in the same way. I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and POTS, and my experience seeking treatment has been pretty traumatic. That experience formed as much of who I am as any good thing that’s happened to me, but there’s no greeting card or scrapbook for it, so the pennants are a way to mark those experiences. “
Pennants are usually associated with celebration and there’s a nice irony in using that visual language to highlight negative experiences. Negative things are just as formative as positive ones but they aren’t acknowledged in the same way. I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and POTS, and my experience seeking treatment has been pretty traumatic. That experience formed as much of who I am as any good thing that’s happened to me, but there’s no greeting card or scrapbook for it, so the pennants are a way to mark those experiences. “
BIO:
Saint Failure is the work of Julie Forbush, an interdisciplinary artist and writer who has seen every episode of 90 Day Fiance. After dropping out of an English literature degree, she received a BFA and several student loans from Pacific Northwest College of Art. Her work has been featured on telephone poles, bathroom walls, and in the occasional gallery.
DESCRIPTIONS:
Pain
The quilted pennant is triangular shaped with its apex pointed down. The background colors are shades of blue, purple and dark gray. Pearly white fabric forms the word Pain. The quilt stitching is wavy white thread. The piece is edged in pearly white fabric and secured to the white wall by two loops.
Suffer
The quilted pennant is a long, narrow triangle with its apex pointed down. The background colors are muddy gray, yellow and dusty rose. Burgundy fabric forms the word Suffer. The piece is quilted with diagonal bands of gray thread, edged in black and secured to the white wall by two loops.
-art descriptions by Teri Grossman
The quilted pennant is triangular shaped with its apex pointed down. The background colors are shades of blue, purple and dark gray. Pearly white fabric forms the word Pain. The quilt stitching is wavy white thread. The piece is edged in pearly white fabric and secured to the white wall by two loops.
Suffer
The quilted pennant is a long, narrow triangle with its apex pointed down. The background colors are muddy gray, yellow and dusty rose. Burgundy fabric forms the word Suffer. The piece is quilted with diagonal bands of gray thread, edged in black and secured to the white wall by two loops.
-art descriptions by Teri Grossman
Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Organized by Pamela Schaff (Medical Education, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics), Julie Van Dam (French and Italian), Erika Wright (Medical Education and English), Sabrina Derrington (Pediatrics), and Ron Ben-Ari (Internal Medicine and Medical Education). Co-sponsored by the Keck School of Medicine’s HEAL (Humanities, Ethics, Art, and Law) Program and the Center for Bioethics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
DONATE via Fractured Atlas!
Opulent Mobility by A. Laura Brody is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
The Opulent Mobility license refers to the exhibit and its audio descriptions. Individual artworks are the property of the individual artists.